


Réparer

by JadeJem



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng Fluff, Confusion, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Hot Mess Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Lady Scarlet AU, Oblivious, Post-Reveal Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Romance, Slow Build, Slow Burn, adrienette - Freeform, love square
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 14:07:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18592813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadeJem/pseuds/JadeJem
Summary: "So...""So.""...Who are you, again?""The man of your dreams?""Ah, yes. I forgot.""Memory wiped?""Yeah.""Mine too."Oh boy.





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**Author's Note:**

> Hey, loves! Jade here with a birthday present for my good friend Sare.
> 
> Enjoy. ;)

Ladybug wasn't entirely sure how it happened, as ominous as that sounded.

She cried out in pain as she wobbled back a few more steps, narrowly avoiding the jab of the akuma's spear. Her eyes found Chat's form on the ground a few feet away, and she pathetically dove for him.

Her hands weakly patted him down, checking desperately for a pulse.

"Chat?" she queried, choking on a sob as she shook his still form. "Chat!"

He didn't move.

Something in Ladybug shattered, and suddenly, she didn't care about her life anymore.

She didn't care if she died.

Her scream caught in her throat, coming out instead as a horrible gurgling sound.

Chat was dead. Chat was dead, and she had to do something. She had to do something.

_She had to do something._

"Oh, Ladybug," the akuma (she forgot his name, but it didn't matter) chuckled darkly, "this is the end."

Ladybug desperately cast her gaze around for something— _anything_ —that could be of use to her.

Her eyes fell on Chat Noir's activated ring, which was beeping incessantly. She scrambled forward and pulled the ring off his finger, shielding her eyes from the blinding green light that came from his transformation dissolving around him.

She didn't look at the face of her dead partner as she jammed his silver ring onto the middle finger of her right hand. It shrunk to fit, and she didn't even glance at the Chat's Kwami before she was screaming the transformation key.

Rage and utter loss swelled within her as the power of the dual Miraculous pumped through her veins like liquid courage. Her feet left the ground as the transformation completed itself.

"With the power of the Black Cat and Ladybug Miraculous," she said, her voice echoed by that of Tikki's and, assumedly, Plagg's, "I wish to rewind time and set things right."

Her hands crashed together of their own accord, and a ball of light materialized between her fingers. Energy crackled like bolts of electricity through her joints as the light continued to grow bigger and bigger by the second.

Marinette tried her best to ignore the tickle of tears sliding down her cheeks.

The light suddenly shot from Marinette's hands, and the air in front of her tore open with a deafening rip. She could hear the faint sound of someone screaming at her, and she barely tilted her face in their direction.

Adrien's blood-drenched form quivered as he struggled to sit up. His arm was outstretched toward her, his mouth moving, though she couldn't discern what he was saying.

Marinette spared him a sympathetic look. "No worries, Chaton." She swiped at her eyes and smiled. "I will set things right."

She turned and drifted toward the pocket of swirling light.

***   *   ***

Marinette grunted as an irritating chiming went off on her left. Her hand slapped around for the source of the horrendous sound and hit her phone.

She lifted her head from her pillow and blinked blearily at the bright screen. Her thumb found the snooze button and clicked it before her head was back on the pillow.  
After laying there for a couple of seconds, she lifted her head again.

Something wasn't right.

She pushed herself out of bed and stumbled down the stairs leading up to her loft. She got dressed and grabbed her school bag, feeling oddly alone.

When she bid her father good-bye, his reply was weird: "Have a good first day, honey!"

 _First day?_  Marinette thought to herself, taking a bite of apple as she strode up the front steps of her high school.

Maybe Tom had been kidding?

She'd encountered weirder.

She stopped walking.

She'd encountered weirder? When?

Her mind drew a blank, and so, with a shake of her head, she continued walking to class.

***   *   ***

Something was wrong.

Something was horribly, terribly, catastrophically wrong.

Paris' superheroes, Bug and Minou, as Alya had called them, flew by overhead, battling it out with an akuma. Marinette watched them with a sinking feeling in her chest. Alarm bells sounded in her mind, and she wondered if she had ever really woken up that morning.

She watched the fight, so rapt in the rapid movements of the heroes that she didn't realize she had walked into somebody until she was stumbling into them.

"Sorry," they said simultaneously, pulling away from one another.

Marinette stared into the boy's brilliant green eyes and felt her stomach swoop.

_Something was wrong._

He stared back at her, emotion flashing through his gaze. "I'm Adrien," he blurted, though he snapped his mouth shut as though surprised he'd spoken. His hand came up to scratch the back of his neck—a nervous tick.

"Marinette," she replied, suddenly and inexplicably so very short of breath.

"Do you happen to have the date?" he asked, his hand dropping back to his side to rest in his jean pocket.

Marinette frowned and bit her lip, checking her pockets for her phone. When she couldn't find it, her frown deepened. "I... don't," she said, confused. "I've been wondering about that all day."

Adrien's eyes widened a small fraction, glinting like miniature summer meadows. Spots of sunshine filtering through a tree over head were speckled across his face, and Marinette had begun to count the golden flecks his eyes caught.

"Me too," he muttered, his gaze still glued to hers.

The weight of it made Marinette's skin tingle pleasantly. She shivered and had to look away.  
"I feel like I can trust you," Adrien added, chasing her gaze.

This caught Marinette's attention. Her eyes met his once more, and she hoped she wasn't blushing too noticeably.

(She probably was.)

"Yeah?" she asked incredulously, blinking up at him in surprise.

And then it hit her: She understood why she felt weird around him.

He was  _familiar_.

A surprised "oh" bubbled out of her mouth, and Adrien's lips twitched.

"But how?" she queried before he could make a snide comment (he was full of those—he was?).

Adrien was frowning now, his finger tapping his chin. "I don't know. Do you have any memory of before you woke up?"

"Of course I do," Marinette said automatically. "Why wouldn't I?"

And then she thought about it.

And thought about it.

And  _thought about it._

There were memories, sure, but they all felt foggy and far away—almost as if they weren't tangible or even her own.

"No," she whispered suddenly, reeling like she'd been punched. "I don't have any clear memories from before today."

They stared at one another for a long time.

"This entire day has felt off," Marinette admitted when he didn't say anything else, shattering the wavering silence between them. Had they drifted closer to one another? He really did feel too familiar to be standing more than a foot away.

"Same," Adrien agreed. "I thought I was going crazy."

"Do you think anyone else feels like we do?" Marinette asked, if only to buffer herself from tumbling into him—she wished he'd direct his pretty pretty  _pretty_  eyes elsewhere.

"I don't think so," Adrien replied, eyebrows furrowing as he finally ( _finally_ ) gave Marinette a minute to collect herself by looking away. "You're the only person I've run into that feels familiar and is also... not normal?"

"Gee, thanks."

Adrien barked a laugh, amused. His eyes glittered with mirth, and Marinette positively wanted to self-destruct.

_Note to self: Do not make him laugh—you're at risk of going into cardiac arrest._

"Anytime," he hummed, throwing a wink at her.

The need to impale herself (she was still deciding how she wanted to die) didn't fade, but Marinette found it in herself to move on and not dwell too much on his flirty smile.

"So, what are we supposed to do?" she asked, blowing her bangs out of her eyes and shifting her weight. "There's obviously something wrong. It feels like I'm stuck in a dream."

"I feel the same way, but I don't think there's anything we can do. Whatever this is, we'll just have to try and stick together to work it out," Adrien reasoned, his gaze dancing away from Marinette's when she blinked up at him.

And, really, it made sense, so she saw no reason to disagree.

They winded up at the steps of Marinette's high school. "Are you coming?" she asked Adrien when she began ascending the stairs, turning to look over her shoulder at him.

Adrien had stopped walking and was shifting nervously. "I'm homeschooled," he admitted softly, cheeks warming as he stared down at his shoes.

Marinette retraced her steps, now only a couple of stairs above him (though, to her disdain, he was still taller than her).

"I don't want us to get separated," she said, trying her best to think rationally. "Maybe just come and pretend to be a new student?"

"My father," Adrien muttered, still avoiding her gaze even as he took her extended hand. "He'll be looking for me."

Marinette squeezed his hand, and he looked up at her. "Then we'll deal with him together."

The way he was staring at her felt too intimate for her limited memory of him, so she hurriedly looked away and began pulling him along. "Maybe we can pass you off as an exchange student?"

They didn't get far.

"So I forgot to mention," Adrien blurted, freezing in place and stopping Marinette in her tread through the school's entryway. "I might be a...  _slight_  celebrity."

Marinette raised a bemused eyebrow before a smile crossed her lips. "Very funny." She turned to continue pulling him along and was stunned.

A swarm of girls were clawing their way across the basketball courts, all screaming, "Adrien!" and another name starting with A.

'Agreste,' her mind supplied eagerly as Marinette watched in horror while the crowd of girls came closer and closer.

"Of course you're famous," was all Marinette had time to say before she was cast aside, Adrien's hand torn from her own.

She landed on the ground, knee slamming into the concrete hard enough to make stars explode behind her eyes. The screaming of Adrien's name didn't dim, and Marinette bit back her anger in favor of getting to her feet and dusting herself off.

Adrien's voice rang out over the others, but she couldn't tell what he was trying to say. She almost just left him there to fend for himself but ultimately decided she'd lean against the wall and wait for him.

"Hey, girl." Marinette jumped and whirled to see Alya, her supposed best friend. "The fight was great! I thought you were still with me, but you disappeared. Where did you go?"

Just as Marinette opened her mouth to respond, she suddenly felt way too many eyes glued onto the side of her head as she caught the tail end of Adrien's sentence.

"...my girlfriend!"

_What?_

Alya's mouth fell open. Her gaze ping-ponged between Adrien (who looked pleadingly at Marinette) and Marinette. "Your  _what_?" she finally sputtered, turning on Marinette with the fury of a vengeful goddess.

"Um," Marinette said eloquently.

The girls surrounding Adrien were glaring at her as if she'd murdered their families, and Adrien himself looked like he was ready to drop to his knees and beg Marinette to play along.

With a drawn-out sigh, Marinette reluctantly nodded. "Yeah... I'm his girlfriend."

Alya was gobsmacked. "And  _why_  am I only learning about his existence  _now_?" she howled, grabbing Marinette by the forearm and dragging her toward Adrien.

Adrien looked just as stricken when Alya also grabbed his arm and began dragging the two away from the whining girls.

Marinette massaged her temple as memories of Alya came flooding back through her mind, filling holes in.

So.

She was in trouble.

_Big trouble._

Even if this wasn't exactly her Alya, she recognized the furious indignance blazing in her eyes. But it was weird; something felt just a little bit off... Was it her short haircut? Her purple flannel? Marinette wasn't sure, but this Alya was definitely just a little bit different from the Alya in her memories.

Alya stopped yanking on their arms when they were under one of the staircases and whirled on Adrien and Marinette, accusation filtering through her gaze. "Not only did you change your entire look, but now you suddenly have a boyfriend? Mari, what is going  _on_?"

Marinette winced. Changed her entire look? She was pretty sure she'd always looked like this. "I'm... sorry for not telling you sooner, Alya," she said hesitantly, locking eyes with Adrien to ask for help. "We've been trying to keep it on the down-low."

Alya was unconvinced. "And how exactly did you and Model Monthly meet?" she queried dubiously, her eyebrow climbing closer to her hairline with every passing moment as she glanced between the two of them.

Her accusatory stare finally settled on Adrien, and he shrank under her gaze.

"Um," he choked out, visibly unsure of how to answer. "Well, we... we've run into each other a lot. Um."

Marinette smacked her forehead.

 _Chat Noir the smooth-talker? I can't wait to make fun of him for this,_  Marinette thought, almost snickering before the joke lost all of its appeal.

Who was Chat Noir?

Marinette stared at Adrien and blinked. For a moment, she could almost see him in her mind's eye, dressed in black spandex with a mask donning his face. His hair was ruffled, and his eyes were green and cat-like when he met her gaze.

Marinette sucked in a sharp breath and jumped away, hitting her head on the stone pillar underneath the staircase. A whine of pain left her mouth, and both Adrien and Alya were staring at her with open concern.

"I'm fine," Marinette muttered, waving them off with an embarrassed pout. "I just... saw a bug."

Adrien still looked worried, but Alya snached his attention back by poking him in the chest. "And what about you, Count Gorgeous? What stake do you have in my best friend? Are you using her?" With each question, Alya jabbed Adrien once more, lips pulling back into a snarl.

"Whoa, whoa," Marinette intercepted, stepping forward with a little wobble and gently separating Alya from Adrien. "He has done no such thing. Just because he's famous doesn't mean he has some sort of evil plan for me."

"He's Poster-boy Perfection, Mari!" Alya cried indignantly, her glare sticking to Adrien even as Marinette stepped in front of him protectively. "No one has a cleaner image! He must be doing  _some_  shady shit behind the scenes!"

The idea of Adrien doing anything shady at all felt much too bizarre for Marinette's comprehension, and she couldn't help but snort a laugh. "Adrien? Shady?" She dissolved into giggles when Adrien jabbed her in the side. 

Alya's eyes flashed between the two of them with a calculating glare; Marinette wondered if she was a reporter like the Alya she knew.

The bell rang overhead, and Alya's eyes narrowed once more. "We're not done here," she stated, sending an 'I'm watching you' motion at Adrien with her fingers before sauntering off.

Silence settled between Adrien and Marinette for a long minute before Adrien inclined his head when Marinette stepped away from him. "Best friend?"

Marinette grimaced. "Not exactly. I mean, Alya is my best friend, but that didn't... that wasn't  _her_  her."

Adrien's eyes said that he understood. "Hmm," was all he vocalized.

The rest of the day proved to be just as much of a challenge.

Marinette was rapidly recovering her memories, but everyone she thought she knew was different—drastically so.

By Adrien's range of expressions, she assumed that he actually knew a majority of the people they ran into. What did that mean? Was he supposed to be attending school with Marinette?

Adrien himself was a solid blank in Marinette's mind. He felt much more familiar than a stranger should, so she obviously knew him, but there was so much missing that she could only learn from how he acted at the present to really collect any information.

Identity crises aside, Marinette thought they were doing pretty well.

"Have you ever happened to don a red and black-spotted suit before?" Adrien asked casually as he followed Marinette into her parents' flower shop (it was supposed to be a bakery, she noted mentally, her childhood memories restoring themselves the moment she saw the sign outside).

Marinette frowned and thought for a moment. There happened to be another large blank in her memory that she couldn't quite puzzle out. She'd been trying different things in an attempt to trigger the recognition that came with memory restoration, but so far, she'd had no such luck.

"Why?" she asked instead, avoiding answering as she thought back to Chat Noir, the boy with the black mask and brilliant eyes who kept popping up in her memories.

Adrien eyed her for a moment before opening his mouth to answer.

"Marinette!" a woman (Sabine, her mother, her mind supplied) nearly dropped a potted plant as she started in surprise. "Goodness, you didn't say hi! I would have come out sooner... Who's this?" Her gaze sharpened as her eyes switched to Adrien.

"This is... Adrien! He's, um, a friend from school," Marinette stammered, her smile wavering uncertainly.

Adrien seemed to come to life beside her. "Hi, Miss Cheng. I'm Adrien. It's nice to meet you." The smile he shone glowed like a beaming sun, and Sabine looked pleasantly surprised.

"Nice to meet you, too, Adrien. Marinette's never mentioned you before."

Adrien scratched the back of his neck with a smile. "Ah, yeah. I'm new."

Sabine's returning smile was mischievous. "Would you like to stay for tea?"

Adrien hesitated, his gaze drifting to Marinette for help.

"Yeah, that would be cool," Marinette cut in, gently tapping the inside of Adrien's elbow and drawing him forward with dainty fingers. "We have a project to work on, so we can't waste too much time, Maman."

Sabine's eyes flipped between the two with far too much speculation for Marinette's liking. "Of course," she said warmly. "Marinette, I'm going to finish up down here. Can you get the tea started?"

"Of course, Maman," Marinette replied, grateful for the excuse to slip away from her prying gaze.  
With a final forced smile, Marinette led Adrien up the stairs and into the living room.

Marinette was rapidly becoming irritated with their predicament; she obviously wasn't where she was supposed to be. She was itching to figure out what exactly they (her and Adrien, she supposed) were dealing with so she could get out of it and return to her normal life.

She opened the pantry and stared at a bag of chocolate chip cookies.

 _Tikki_.

"Tikki," she whispered, the teapot she'd picked up slipping from her hands.

It shattered the moment it hit the floor, porcelain scattering in every which direction as Marinette was suddenly attacked by a barrage of mental images. She stumbled and fell against the counter, grasping at anything she could for support as her knees buckled and her entire body nearly gave out on her.

Adrien's voice was foggy against her ears as his warms hands hooked themselves around her—to sturdy her? Was she slipping?

Image after image gripped her mind with intense focus, portraying a small, red, floating being. Her high-pitched voice felt like bells bouncing off of the walls of Marinette's head, and Marinette was so dizzy that everything around her was suddenly fading to nothing.

***   *   ***

Marinette grunted as an irritating chiming went off on her left. Her hand slapped around for the source of the horrendous sound and hit her phone.

She lifted her head from her pillow and blinked blearily at the bright screen. Her thumb found the snooze button and clicked it before her head was back on the pillow.

After laying there for a couple seconds, she lifted her head again.

_Adrien._

She jolted out of bed, the sheets piling on the floor as she raced down the stairs in a panic.

A sharp, searing pain shot through Marinette's head, and she groaned, her knees hitting the floor with a clumsy thump. Images shot through her head, re-educating her on what she was supposed to be doing: getting back home. 

And from the looks of her unfamiliar purple room, this wasn't it. 

She got dressed and was quick to make a break for the door. 

She was stumped when faced with a long hallway that mirrored that of Le Grand Paris. 

Chloé Bourgeois suddenly came back to her, and Marinette grunted in reluctant acknowledgement. 

She hesitantly tiptoed her way down the long hallway until she was in front of a set of elevators. She pushed the down button and waited. 

The lobby belonged to that of Le Grand Paris, and Marinette stood in shock as she spun in slow circles. 

Suddenly, her purple blouse and striped shirt made sense. 

"I'm  _Chloé_?!" she howled, shocked and horrified for so many different reasons.   
This  _couldn't_  be happening. 

She briefly checked her handbag to see if there was a Kwami in there, but was quickly disappointed. What else was she meant to look for? What did having a Kwami even mean, anyway?

She couldn't quite wrap her head around it, so she pushed the thought aside and focused on finding Adrien; he had to be around here somewhere. 

Marinette didn't know what she'd do if he wasn't. 

People were staring at Marinette as if she'd grown a second head the moment she walked through the school's doors, and she was suddenly plagued with panic. 

Classmates were flinching away as if they were expecting her to lash out at them, and Marinette realized that this sick, twisted version of reality called for her to be mean to people. 

Well, she  _refused_. 

To her relief, Adrien was sitting in the front row when she walked through the classroom doors. His eyes lit up when he saw her, and he patted the space beside him. 

She took the seat, wary of the way everyone was staring at her expectantly. 

"Adrien? Is that you?" she asked softly, not daring to look at him until she was sure he was the boy she'd been with this entire time. 

"Yeah, it's me, Mar," Adrien replied, leaning in toward her to keep his voice low. 

Marinette ignored the way the heat rushed into her cheeks and cleared her throat, fiddling with the hem of her shirt. 

Adrien took one long look at her outfit and visibly struggled not to laugh. 

"I will hit you, Agreste," she growled under her breath, smoothing her shirt out self-consciously. "I never thought this day would come."

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, I don't remember exactly who you are, but I know that this, in a normal context, would be  _hilarious_ ," Adrien preened quietly, laughing into his hand even when Marinette punched his shoulder. 

"So," said a cold voice from behind Marinette. "That's my boyfriend's seat, Marinette." 

Marinette whirled in surprise to see Alya glaring down at her—Alya, her best friend. Marinette cringed as Alya's entire personality came back to her; if Marinette was anything like Chloé, Alya wouldn't be fond of her or even tolerate her. 

Marinette exchanged a hesitant look with Adrien. "Ah, sorry," she said softly, gaze finding the floor as she picked her bag up and shuffled out of her seat. Adrien looked like he was going to argue, but Marinette simply shook her head. "Um... my seat. Right. That is..."

She looked up, hoping Alya would be of some assistance, but Alya was looking at Marinette as if she'd just kicked a puppy. 

...And so was the rest of the class. 

Great. 

Marinette felt her cheeks warm—in what world would this  _ever_  be her reality?

_Is this what it feels like to be Chloé?_

She didn't entertain that particular thought for long because Chloé lashed out at everyone and deserved a lot of what she got in return. 

When no one said anything, Marinette pursed her lips and quietly made her way to where the Chloé from her memory sat. Sabrina occupied the other seat, equally as gobsmacked. 

When the stares became too much and class wasn't starting, Marinette stood up and forced herself out of the classroom door and toward the nearest girl's bathroom. 

She knew the only one who would come after her was Adrien, so she wasn't surprised when he caught up to her before she reached the bathroom. 

"Are you okay?" he asked, concerned because that's just who he was, wasn't it?

Marinette's head was pounding with the beginnings of a headache. "Do you get head pain, too?" she queried, wincing and leaning into him when he stepped closer to offer support. 

"Not really," he admitted, stiff with surprise at the sudden contact before relaxing into her embrace. "You do?"

"Yeah." Marinette nodded, listening to the steady beating of his heart. "It hurts really bad every time I get some of my memory back." 

"My head doesn't hurt, but I do feel a little overwhelmed," Adrien acquiesced, his hands finding the back of Marinette's head and her lower back. 

"This sucks," Marinette whispered on a shaky breath, fighting the burning of her eyes and tears in her voice as she pressed closer to Adrien. "You're the only other person who understands what's happening right now. I don't know what I would do without you."

Adrien didn't say anything, but he held her tighter than he had before. His heart was pittering faster now as he settled his head on top of her own. 

"I'm sorry," he said into her hair, warm and just so... she didn't know how to describe it. "I wish I could do something more to help, my lady."

_My lady._

His words struck her like a bolt of rampant lightning, and suddenly, she was spiraling into darkness again. 


End file.
